Baby's 1st Video

Aimed at babies from 0-3 yrs. (please, nurse, get out of my way, this newborn doesn't need a post-natal exam, there's an important video we have to cue up immediately), this is the latest entry in the growing genre of let's-exercise-baby's-brain videos (see our review of So Smart! on Video Librarian Online [www.videolibrarian.com]). Lullaby music and baby coos and giggles make up the audio portion of the tape, while the simple black & white animation offers a metamorphosing series of shapes, including chess boards, kites, bouncing balls, balloons, stars, etc. Meant to engage and strengthen a baby's visual tracking ability, Baby's 1st Video tries to isolate qualities that would also be found in far more narratively interesting children's fare. Our one-year-old grandson, Hunter, was enthralled by the program for precisely six seconds; though he did pay a bit more attention to Jeopardy (and offered a partial answer--"ma"--several times). My conclusion: babies don't care for rote exercises any more than the rest of us; humans, whether young or old, crave a story. Baby's 1st Video was entirely too abstract (at least for our grandson). An optional purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)